Cardiac Canadiens pounce on Theodore

Answer this: am I wrong when I suggest this one was supposed
to be little more than men vs. boys for all of the right reasons?

By Montreal GazetteFebruary 11, 2010

Answer this: am I wrong when I suggest this one was supposed to be little more than men vs. boys for all of the right reasons?

On one side, the NHL's No. 1 overall team, led by Alexander Ovechkin, the world's best and most exciting player. On the other, a team missing regulars Michael Cammalleri, Andrei Kostitsyn, Benoit Pouliot, Marc-André Bergeron and Paul Mara under the intense pressure of a playoff race.

What's more, they also played without defenceman Josh Gorges for the last two periods, a guy whose average time on the ice is 21:25, for the very good reason that he blocked a puck with his head.

Happily for Josh, by gosh, he was wearing a helmet at the time.

Anyway, as you know, the Washington Capitals, were seeking their 15th consecutive win on this night - an astonishing run during which they have often rallied to win.

So how do you explain this 6-5 overtime victory by the Canadiens - the winner coming from Tomas Plekanec's second goal of the night with only 7.5 seconds remaining in overtime. And overtime, by the way, made necessary only after the Capitals had rallied with three goals in the third period, the tying goal coming with only 18.4 seconds remaining in regulation.

Part of the explanation is that the Canadiens took care of it by keeping Ovechkin off the scoresheet with a patchwork roster, although he did add to his NHL-leading points total with two assists.

What you saw last night was a game the Canadiens dominated in the first two periods, taking advantage of a sloppy group of Washington defenders and goaltending that rated no higher than poor, with gusts up to terrible.

José Theodore, winner of 10 consecutive games during the Capitals' streak, was a surprise non-starter last night - until, that is, 5:40 into the second period, at which time the Capitals had rallied twice to tie the game.

It appears that Michal Neuvirth suffered a minor injury making one of his 12 stops, but the reality is he simply didn't look comfortable from the moment Scott Gomez opened the scoring on the Canadiens' second shot 36 seconds in.

Know something? The Capitals looked nothing like a No. 1 overall team, except in the third period, against an injury-riddled Canadiens gang that filled the roster with bodies named Tom, David and Ben. Tom, as in Pyatt, assisted on the first goal and provided the Canadiens with a 2-1 lead in the first minute of the second period - the two points being his first two in the 20 NHL games he's played.

There are two things thatcan be taken out of this game. The first is that no matter what credentials a team brings into an arena, the game still is played on the ice.

The Canadiens did what they had to do - blowing three goals past Theodore after the Capitals had rallied in the first and second periods to erase one-goal deficits.

What also was abundantly clear is that while these No. 1 overall Capitals have their eye on the prize this season, they won't do it with the kind of goaltending they got last night. Teams don't win Stanley Cups with anything less than 'A' games in the nets. They didn't get it from Neuvirth in the 25:40 he played (two goals on 14 shots) and surely not from Theodore, who was beaten three times on the 12 shots he faced in the second period.

Put it this way: the Canadiens' Theodore who was at his best in the playoffs for a couple of seasons, is only a shadow of himself in the Washington nets. Neuvirth is a work in process, so unless

Semyon Varlamov can recapture the magic he displayed last season, the Capitals are vulnerable in the most important position on the ice.

I'll say this for Theodore: he made several excellent stops before and after he imploded, particularly one on Andrei Markov midway through the final period when a goal would have provided additional comfort to the 5-3 lead the Canadiens enjoyed.

What happened instead was that Brooks Laich scored his second of the night one minute later against a so-so Carey Price, which often can turn into a team's worst nightmare - and did when Laich beat Price a third time.

Until, that is, Plekanec sent everybody home happy with his 17th goal of the season.

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